Tag Archives: rainfall

environmental news

Rain forecasted differently

When you come of age in an environment known for its incessant rainfall, you kinda/sorta learn to chuckle at various perspectives related to weather forecasting.

I just came home from a trip back to where Mom and Dad welcomed me to this world: Portland … the one in Oregon. It rains a lot there. I have joked over the years that the relentless light drizzle has to soak everything for three or four days before you even notice it.

Then my family and I moved to Texas in 1984, where it also can rain a lot. The volume of rain here is vastly different than what usually soaks the Pacific Northwest. Here it often comes all at once in huge quantities; there, it’s a little at a time.

Here is what made me chuckle. The weather forecaster for KATU Channel 2 lamented that the city had gone “nine whole days without rain.” Wow, man. Stop the presses. She was hoping for more. Today, the forecasted weather system delivered the goods in fine fashion. I managed to fly out of Portland on time.

But wait! Our plane got diverted and delayed about a half hour because of rain at D/FW airport. We landed. I got my truck out of parking and then drove through a downpour to my home in Collin County.

I don’t believe any of the weathermen and women here were disappointed at the rainfall. Why? Because nine-day dry spells are more like the norm than the exception around here.

They got the rain they expected to get in Portland. Let’s hope it stays wet there … per normal.

local news

Happy Trails, Part 128: Getting tired of rain … again!

I once posted a blog item that told of how I had grown to appreciate the rain, given that we lived in the Texas Panhandle, where annual rainfall amounted to fewer than 20 inches.

We moved to Amarillo from Beaumont, where it rains a lot more than that; we moved to Beaumont from Portland, Ore., where it rains constantly. Growing up I hated the rain.

Now we have relocated to Fairview, just north of Dallas.

It has been raining here. A lot! It’s making me grow tired of the rain yet again.

My wife and I spent a few days out of town. We pulled our RV from our garage location in Amarillo to Copper Breaks State Park, about a dozen miles south of Quanah. It rained a good bit while we were there, but it was mild compared to what fell on the Metroplex and the Hill Country while we were staying at Copper Breaks.

Then we returned home Wednesday, driving into the deluge that had flooded much of the Metroplex.

Now we hear that “a lot more rain is on the way,” according to a TV meteorologist.

OK, I am not going to gripe about the rain. I know it brings life to any region that is fortunate enough to receive it. I also know that it brings destruction if it comes too rapidly; just as those who live along the Llano River in the Hill Country have learned.

I guess it’s just in my nature to bitch about the rain, just as I griped for more than two decades while living in Amarillo about the lack of it and the incessant sunshine.

Now that I am older and possibly wiser (although that’s open to plenty of debate, as my blog critics might suggest), I’ll just have to learn with what I cannot control.

local news

Let's guard against drought smugness

The latest downpour that drenched the Texas Panhandle this morning likely means a couple of things.

One: Our year-to-date precipitation total is more than double the normal amount at this time of the year. Normal is around 5 inches; I’m betting our total now exceeds 10 inches of precipitation for the year.

Two: Our total precipitation for this year is now about 10 times the amount of moisture that fell a year ago to date.

OK, here’s a third thing this abundant rain means: Our drought is far from being over.

I trust you understand that.

The drought we’ve endured on the Texas Tundra has been years in the making. It’s going to take years — and I mean several years — of abundant rain and snowfall to abate this drought.

What does it mean? It means we ought to still take care when watering our lawns and washing our vehicles.

I know we city folks cannot control how farmers irrigate their crops. Then again, they know better than we do about the value of the water that runs underground and are likely to ensure they have enough of it to keep irrigating their crops.

The rain is welcome. As always.

Let’s not get too smug, though, about the drought. It’s still with us.